The SPOT GPS tracker is one of those things that you buy hoping you’ll never need, but if you do end up using it you’ll be glad you invested.

It’s a personal locator which at the press of a button sends your location in an SMS or email to your chosen recipients (or the emergency services). It uses satellites to transmit the message so it will work anywhere in the world and doesn’t need any mobile phone services to be present.

The new model has a few improvements over the original model, some cosmetic and some deeper changes. The ones worth noting are:

• 30% smaller and lighter, it now weighs just 148 grams
• More sensitive GPS chipset and antenna for enhanced performance
• Additional functions apart from SOS.

The new functions let you send different types of message – you can give out regular positional status updates to your contacts for example and allocate a pre-programmed message to a dedicated button.

They’ve also put a protective cover over the “get me out of here” SOS function to stop you getting it confused with the other new buttons they added – probably a wise move!

You can find the full press release here

[via Gizmodo]